Sunday WRC 2: Tidemand’s home run

Pontus Tidemand scored a popular home victory when he began his WRC 2 campaign in style at Rally Sweden today.

The Swede, driving a Skoda Fabia R5, won the WRC’s principal support category by 51.8sec after dominating the four-day snow and ice event. It made up for the disappointment of finishing a close second 12 months ago.

“This is one of the highlights of my career,” said 26-year-old Tidemand. “My first home win at Rally Sweden in WRC 2 is a dream come true. Last year we narrowly missed out on victory, but that has only made this success all the sweeter.”

Tidemand took the lead on Friday morning and won 10 of the 17 speed tests. Ironically he drew a blank today, preferring to drive cautiously to protect his lead which topped 75sec last night.

He heads the championship standings after two of the 13 rounds, level on points with Rallye Monte-Carlo winner Andreas Mikkelsen.

Suninen finished second in a Ford Fiesta R5

Teemu Suninen fended off the challenge of Ole Christian Veiby to finish second in a Ford Fiesta R5. The Finn won two of today’s three speed tests to head the Norwegian, also in a Fabia R5, by 15.6sec.

The rest of the top six was also unchanged. Eric Camilli claimed fourth from Britain’s Gus Greensmith, both in Fiesta R5s, while Emil Bergqvist completed the top half dozen in a Citroën DS 3 R5.